Therapy dog put down after attack in Pitt Meadows

METRO VANCOUVER — Buttons, the Shih Tzu-Lhasa Apso cross, would have been seven years old next month.

However, instead of getting ready to mark the little therapy dog’s birthday, his owners are grieving his loss and saying goodbye after a tragic incident Monday.

On that sunny morning, as they have done numerous times before, Pitt Meadows retirees John and Yvonne McDonald – who are also members of St. John’s Therapy Dogs program – took Buttons for a walk. They decided to stop for a coffee at the McDonald’s restaurant on Harris Road and Lougheed Highway around 11 a.m. That's when things quickly took a turn for the worst.

John opted to stay on the outdoor patio with Buttons, while Yvonne went inside to order their drinks.

“All of a sudden, I heard screaming outside,” Yvonne recalled.

Another dog, which was sitting on the patio with its owners, had charged Buttons and clamped its jaws down around the little dog’s stomach, she explained.

“It was horrendous,” John told The TIMES.

The dog's owners had a muzzle with them, but had taken it off, and untied the dog to allow it to get a drink of water and didn’t put the muzzle back on, John recalled.

“The minute it saw Buttons, it rushed Buttons – who of course went straight into a submissive position, and it took us about five minute to finally get this dog off him.”

At that point, John said the large dog's owners put the muzzle back on him and walked away with the dog.

The rest of John and Yvonne’s day was spent at an emergency animal clinic. Buttons was found to have a broken leg in two places, which could have meant amputation. Further assessment also showed puncture marks from the big dog’s teeth went right through to Buttons’ stomach, meaning surgery would be required but offered no guarantees.

Therefore, the decision was made Monday night to put Buttons down.

For the McDonald’s, the price of Buttons’ potential surgery was simply too prohibitive, explained John.

“Both my wife and I are seniors and my daughter told us ‘there’s no way you can spend $14,000 to have a dog fixed, Dad’.”

Since the incident, one of the owners has contacted the McDonald’s and has taken responsibility for untying and un-muzzling the dog, offering to pay the vet bills.

“But it’s a case of what they’re willing to do and what they actually do might be two different things," John added.

“[Buttons] died of massive internal injuries," said Yvonne. "He was a very much loved dog. He volunteered at the Pitt Meadows Library, Ridge Meadows Hospital, and Willow Manor. He especially loved kids."

John said his biggest fear is that this attack took place in a public seating area, and it “could have been a child.”

As for the attack dog?

John and Yvonne have contacted the RCMP and bylaws department in Pitt Meadows.

"They won’t put the dog down. I’ve been to City hall, and I’ve talked to two people in the bylaw department who told me they have to follow the rules. I said ‘the rule is the dog has attacked’,” Yvonne said. “If any dog attacks and kills something, that’s not right and it shouldn’t go any further. The dog should be put down.”

This large dog is known to City bylaw enforcement, and been deemed dangerous under the City bylaw, said chief administrative officer Kim Grout.

This designation comes with “a long list of requirements that relates to confinement of the dog, behaviour training and assessment, publicly posting on the property that the dog is dangerous and so on,” she added.

Failing to comply with the order would be the only time the City would be in a position to seize the dog, but "seizure doesn't automatically mean destruction," Grout clarified. "At this point, under our bylaw, we follow the process."

The dog's owners appear very remorseful and have been very compliant, Grout added.

Yvonne said she has also contacted the RCMP and the SPCA. RCMP have since turned over the case to bylaws. And, as the incident took place in Pitt Meadows, Yvonne has been told the Maple Ridge SPCA won’t get involved.

“This has to go through the bylaws, and I really don’t have much faith in the bylaw, because they’re too busy out there writing tickets for cars that are parked outside the yellow lines.”

The rules have to change, Yvonne insisted.

“If this dog had attacked a child, that child would have been dead,” she said. “There was absolutely nothing to provoke this dog, and we’re just beside ourselves.”

===

Editor’s note: Though Buttons' owners believed it was a pit bull that attacked their little dog, the City has since said it was a bullmastiff, while Ridge Meadows RCMP indicate the dog was an American Staffordshire terrier.

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Therapy dog put down after attack in Pitt Meadows

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